Lake Erie 2022 ESI Birds: Nesting, Staging, and Wintering Sites

GL_LAKE_ERIE_2022 ESI BIRDS Polygons, Points is a geospatial dataset from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. It contains vector polygons and points representing bird species in the U.S. portion of Lake Erie, covering coastal Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York. The data characterize bird nesting, migratory staging, and wintering sites for species including wading birds, shorebirds, waterfowl, raptors, diving birds, passerine birds, and gulls and terns.

Use Cases

• Modeling environmental sensitivity to oil spills based on bird species distribution and seasonality.
• Mapping critical bird habitats for conservation planning based on nesting, staging, and wintering sites.
• Analyzing spatial overlap between bird populations and human-use resources in coastal zones.

Strengths

• Data is part of a structured Environmental Sensitivity Index (ESI) framework designed for oil spill response.
• Includes associated tables with species-specific attributes like abundance, seasonality, and life history.
• Covers a defined study area along the U.S. coast of Lake Erie from the Michigan/Ohio to New York/Canada border.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Data is delivered in PDF format, which may require conversion for spatial analysis.

Provenance

Source

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce

Collection Method

Likely collected through biological surveys and spatial mapping for the Environmental Sensitivity Index.

Time Range

2022

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-13 22:31:44.489829; freshness should be verified.

Geography

United States portion of Lake Erie, covering coastal Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York.